Monday, November 30, 2015

The scariest thing about this Buzzfeed parody is that there was a time which such claims were taken serious. And to a degree they still are. The religious right merely shifts them to another lgbt group:

Let's start this Monday off with a lesson in simplicity. Sometimes we allow our issues to get so complicated that the most important points become missing throughout the tangent mess.

For example, let's take the argument of "religious liberty." When the religious right says:

"It's time to stand up and exercise that freedom, whether it's in the
workplace, whether it's in school, whether it's in the public square as a
public official or in our homes, in our churches. Everywhere there is
air, there must be religious freedom, and we must exercise it." - Tony Perkins, Family Research Council

“There is a war on religious liberty! And this war is not
targeting people of the Muslim faith or the Jewish faith or the Hindu
faith. This war on religious liberty is targeting people of the Christian faith. . . The time has come for all of us to stand together with one voice!”
Starnes insisted. “They may demand to know the content of our prayers,
they may try to shut down our bakeries, they may try to silence our
voices, but we will not be silenced! We will not be intimidated!” - Todd Starnes, Fox News personality

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Rubio says same-sex marriage ‘not settled law’ - Uh you wanna bet! It is settled law and we are not giving up what we EARNED. Looks like Rubio is polishing up his "why are you calling me a bigot simply because I believe differently than you" talking points.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Thanksgiving isn't even here yet and some conservatives on the anti-gay right are already pushing the "War on Christmas."

For the luckily uninitiated, the "War on Christmas" is a yearly event in which conservatives, Fox News, and anti-gay groups either outright lie or blow small incidents way out of proportion to claim that there is some type of "conspiracy" to somehow strip the holiday of its supposed Christian heritage.

In other words, it is merely a fear tactic used to generate big ratings or fundraising profits. And it must be working because America has been exposed to it for so long that many of us are now desensitized to how Christmas is exploited by this awful nonsense.

American Family Association's phony new service, One News Now, has already begun ringing the alarm:

"Those who deny that there's no war on Christmas just have a different reality in which they live," says Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver. The Christian attorney points to one recent example: the Veterans Affairs medical center in Salem, Virginia, which banned Christmas altogether – including the Christmas tree.
"This year we've seen a number of attacks on Christmas – [one of them being] the absurd situation that Christmas trees are not permitted," he says, referring to the Salem situation. "That is probably one of the most absurd positions of any government official: that a Christmas tree cannot be permitted because it's Christian and establishes a religion – and yet that's exactly what was happening at Salem, Virginia."

Monday, November 23, 2015

If Mat Staver and the Liberty Counsel raised "holy hell" with the Associated Press for merely pointing out that the organization is considered by some to be a hate group, I imagine that they are going to be extremely angry at the online magazine, Vox.

In a recent issue, Vox shined a bright spotlight on the Liberty Counsel, publishing a piece which should serve as a lesson on how to create a proper article.

The group presents itself as a reasonable arbiter of religious
liberties in these fights, citing discredited scientific research and
supposed experts. But a theme runs through all of these battles: Stop
LGBTQ rights — even basic ones, like legally allowing consensual
same-sex relationships — at any cost.

Here are just a few examples of Staver and Liberty Counsel's past work and comments, largely gathered from Right Wing Watch's archives:

In 2003, Liberty Counsel submitted
a brief to the Supreme Court arguing that the court should not strike
down states' anti-sodomy laws, which banned gay sex. The brief stated,
"Statistical evidence concerning the medical and social harms resulting
from 'private, consensual' same-sex sexual conduct, together with recent
legislative and judicial battles, underscore the long-term, devastating
consequences of a decision declaring a fundamental right to engage in
private consensual same-sex sodomy.

In 2004, Staver argued in Same-Sex Marriage: Putting Every Household at Risk,
"Homosexuality is a destructive lifestyle both physically and
emotionally. Same-sex marriage cannot be viewed in isolation from
homosexual activity and its consequences on those who engage in such
practices, and especially on children raised in such an environment." He
was citing the now-discredited work of psychologist Paul Cameron.

. . . Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told me
that the long history of anti-LGBTQ activism and incendiary comments is
what led his organization to classify
Liberty Counsel as a hate group. "We do not list groups on the basis of
opposition to same-sex marriage or the belief that homosexuality is a
sin," Potok said. "We base it on the propagation of known falsehoods
and, to a lesser extent, repetitive name-calling."

Staver denies that Liberty Counsel is a hate group, saying his
comments have been taken out of context and noting that his group
strictly advocates for nonviolent protest. But looking at the collection
of all these statements, an obvious pattern emerges — one that is
clearly demeaning to LGBTQ people.

But as offensive as these comments are, they're not even the most
bizarre aspect of Liberty Counsel's recent anti-LGBTQ work. In the past
month, Staver and the group have also been caught repeatedly lying — in
what seem to be two failed attempts to appear as if the group and its
anti-LGBTQ crusades are still a major, well-supported force in the
world.

LGBT Leaders Warn of Looming Gay Rights Backlash - Those of us who study history know that this is inevitable. Historically, after any group becomes successful with attaining some form of equality, backlashes by other parts of society occur. The lgbt community does have one advantage. If we followed history, we know what to expect so we can launch a full-throated, unapologetic, aggressive defense of what we have attained. It beats standing out with your thumb in your ass waiting for the wave of homophobic backlash to knock you down. Make sure those folks know that "you have to bring some to get some."

I'll Go With You - A Mother's Personal Story About Her Trans Child And Public Bathrooms.

Victory Fund won’t dump gay lawmakers over refugee vote - I respect the Victory Fund but I also feel that lgbt lawmakers should be called to the carpet, like any other lawmaker, when they do things which simply aren't right. And what these lawmakers did with regards to the Syrian refugee vote was shameful.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

There is no doubt that the situation involving the Syrian refugees has caused much controversy due to the attacks on Paris. Much of the controversy has to do with the fact that even though the perpetrators were identified as European nationals, many conservatives, GOP members, and religious right figures have exploited the situation to demonize not only the Syrian refugees but also those who practice Islam.

We've even had some folks, including presidential candidates such as Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush, offer the idea that only Christian Syrian refugees should be admitted because - as the more coarse of their colleagues put it - "only Muslims are looking to harm people."

To accentuate that mindset comes a new, but callously inaccurate spin which accuses President Obama of favoring Muslim refugees over Christian refugees. And who else is helping to forward this lie but none other than Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council.

Let me just preface that I do NOT condone any type of violence. However, I consider the following clip as a stress reliever.

The Fox News network has practically bent over backwards to demonize lgbts, undermine Obama, and now fan the flames of hysteria against the Syrian refugees. The network is clearly out of control and has gotten to the point where, while in the past I have watched the following clip privately and laughed my ass off, I am now posting it publicly on my blog because I know so many other folks need a stress reliever from that God-awful network.

The following clip is from the Adult Swim show The Boondocks. This episode, Return of the King, deals with a dream had by the main character, Hughie (he's the little boy at the end. When you see him, you'll know) in which Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. was actually not assassinated but put into a coma. He comes out of the coma and attempts to revive a civil rights movement. This includes an appearance on a program which looks like Fox News (beginning at 19 seconds).

. . . details of the two-year investigation prompted by the girl’s complaint
paint a far different picture than that suggested by the rhetoric of
school officials. How the girl, who is undergoing hormone therapy and is
recognized by the school as a female in all other respects (including
her use of bathrooms), first asked — and was denied — an opportunity to
change clothes privately within the girls’ locker room in an area such
as a restroom stall. How the school’s insistence she use separate
facilities for the past two years has stigmatized her. It is clear from
the government’s investigation, which included inspection of the
facilities and interviews with school staff about conduct common in the
locker rooms, that the privacy of all students could be protected
without singling out this girl for separate and discriminatory
treatment. It is a point that was underscored by the hundreds of
students and community members who signed a student-led petition in
support of her access to the locker room.

The Post's calls for equality for transgender students are backed by the collective experience of 17 school districts
around the nation that have implemented policies protecting transgender
students with no negative consequences, and falls during Transgender Awareness Week,
which according to LGBT media advocacy organization GLAAD, "help[s]
raise the visibility of transgender and gender non-conforming people."

Indiana Republicans Introduce The Most Anti-LGBT LGBT Rights Bill Ever - members of his party will be pushing the most vicious anti-gay bill through the state legislature.
It's that new Bible they are following; the one with the verse which says, "use any excuse to preserve xenophobia and homophobia cause if one thing Gods hates more than homosexuals, it's those brown skin people who aren't victims but the victims of terrorism, but who gives a crap. They aren't Christian anyway."

Everything You Need To Know About The New Attacks On Caitlyn Jenner In One Sentence - Caitlyn Jenner is catching a lot of flack. She has been called a disgrace to women, a disgrace to the transgender community, a disgrace to the lgbt community because allegedly she plans to vote Republican in the next presidential election. Just cut it out. I may not be happy with some of her statements and choices but she is still a part of our community. I think the problem lies with folks anointing her as the transgender spokesperson for the community. We simply have to stop relying on celebrities. I am one for visibility but I am also one for intelligent visibility and pushing the good people we have into the spotlight instead of lucking out on having some celebrity come out. Just my thoughts which may or may not have anything to do with the article.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

I have yet to see any of these so-called morality groups appeal to kindness or clarity when it comes to the case of the Syrian refugees who have become the scapegoats of the recent attack on Paris. If their comments are like those below from the Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, then its simply another notch in their belts of lies and duplicity:

That's an uncomfortable reality, even for the church. There seems to
be a growing chorus of Christians who justify these open-door policies
on immigration or asylum with the Bible's command to "love the
stranger." I agree, we should love the stranger -- but that doesn't mean
we have to do so at the expense of our own security. The president's
chief responsibility is to protect Americans from all enemies, foreign
and domestic. It's our job then, as individuals, to show love and
compassion. And there are plenty of charitable solutions for refugees
that don't involve bringing them to America, unchecked and
unaccountable. One option would be to make their homelands safe while we
offer as much humanitarian relief as possible.

Our nation can be caring and benevolent without unnecessarily
endangering our own people. What many forget is that in Scripture,
loving the stranger is just one component. God also commands these
foreigners to assimilate and keep the laws of the land. As Exodus 12:49
makes clear: "There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger
who sojourns among you." The United States' goal should be a safe haven
for everyone. And that means protecting the refugees' shelter abroad
without sacrificing ours at home.

The statement sounds reasonable except for the fact that it is predicated on the unverified belief that one of the perpetrators of the attack in Paris posed as a Syrian refugee.

The majority of attackers were identified as French or Belgian
nationals. An Egyptian passport was also found, but the Egyptian
Ambassador to France said
it belonged to a critically wounded victim and not a perpetrator. The
Syrian passport caused a ruckus, with some politicians in Europe and the
U.S. calling for a halt to Syrian refugee resettlement. An increasing number of state governors are trying to defund the settlement program. American officials told CBS News that the passport might be fake, while British-daily the Independent reported that a man was arrested in Serbia while carrying a Syrian passport with matching details to the one found in Paris.

We all know that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attacks but again, the passport claim has not been verified as a complete fact.

The success of the anti-gay right with stopping a non-discrimination act in Houston has led the Family Research Council to heights of great audacity.

In Houston, anti-gay activists stopped the measure by claiming that it would lead to male predators invading women's restrooms, i.e. exploiting ignorance about the transgender community. The Family Research Council is using the same distortions to stop a national non-discrimination ordinance, The Equality Act.

FRC spokesman Peter Sprigg had an interview with the American Family Association's One News Now in which he spouted off several lies:

Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council notes
that U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) is sponsoring the "Equality
Act," which would amend current federal laws to protect homosexuals
based on claims of discrimination. Asked if the Equality Act mirrors the
non-discrimination bill that was recently defeated by voters in Houston,
Sprigg tells OneNewsNow that it is.

In fact, he says, it also includes the
"public accommodations" requirement in Houston's HERO law. That
allowance is the reason Houstonians described HERO as a "bathroom bill"
and likely a reason it was soundly defeated.

The Equalty Act would give homosexuals,
lesbians, bisexuals, trangender, and "gender noncomforming people"
access to "places of public accommodations," Lambda Legal, a
pro-homosexual legal organization, admits on its website.

"And it does not make any exception for
facilities in which there's a normal expectation of privacy from the
opposite sex such as restrooms, locker rooms and showers," Sprigg warns.
"So it would be a bathroom bill on a national level being forced on all
50 states."

It now seems that they have abandoned the classroom lie because focusing on bathrooms and locker rooms, where females are seemingly more vulnerable, reaps more success.

If you don't think so, check out the comment section under the Sprigg article. The religious right know how to exploit a good scare when they see one.

Of course it's a lie. Transgender-inclusive non-discrimination ordinances will NOT lead to
predators coming into women's restrooms and bathrooms. In fact, that has
never been a problem with other areas which do have
transgender-inclusive non-discrimination ordinances.

But we know what they say about how hard it is for the truth to compete with a lie, particularly one draped in religion and false concerns about safety. The sad thing is that people are either so scared or so exploited by their religious beliefs, they won't see that they are being used by folks like Sprigg and organizations like the Family Research Council

Scalia Compares Legal Protections For Gay People To Protections For Pedophiles - Based on his logic, you can compare legal protections for African-Americans and women to pedophiles, too. To help answer your question, Scalia, minority groups whose behavior is not against the law and historically have been the victims of historical oppression should have legal protection. Folks,
whoever wins the next presidential election gets to pick SCOTUS judges
and Republicans want more judges like THIS $@!*

Monday, November 16, 2015

As a guy who collects male and female action figures (I own several Wonder Woman figures), I don't see anything wrong with this commercial featuring a boy with a Barbie doll. Of course you just KNOW not everyone will be as understanding. But, while my tastes don't run to Barbie dolls, the little boy is right. She is "fierce."

Ted Cruz and the Anti-Gay Pastor - There should be other venues besides the New York Times calling out Ted Cruz AND the other presidential candidates for appearing with this nut. Still, it's nice that the press also gets called out for not caring.

Friday, November 13, 2015

Regarding the case in Utah of the judge removing an infant from the care of foster parents simply because the couple is gay, it would seem that the community, including Utah's governor, is rallying on behalf of the couple. This is a wonderful thing which demonstrates how people aren't as easily fooled by anti-gay propaganda when it comes to the ability of lgbt couples to raise children:

UPDATE - The judge has reversed his order because of the massive negative outcry. Score a HUGE victory for the good guys!!

In other news:

Protesters Confront Caitlyn Jenner: 'You're An Insult To Trans People'- I don't believe that one person should be "chosen" as a representative of all people in one group and I don't believe that it's anyone else's right to anoint themselves as the guardian of how anyone in any group should act. I said this from personal experience because I've been verbally attacked by heterosexual African-Americans for my sexual orientation. That being said, the protesters did make excellent points and it was to Jenner's credit that she listened and talked with them. Life is a learning experience and no one is perfect in their beliefs.

The Government Nondiscrimination Act prohibits the state government from
penalizing individuals and entities for their moral or religious
beliefs that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. It also
protects individuals and entities who believe that sexual relationships
are properly reserved for such marriages—such as a religious school
requiring students to refrain from engaging in any sexual activity
outside of marriage. GNDA also protects individuals and entities from
being penalized for believing that “man” and “woman” are biologically
based. States should not be in the business of forcing individuals and
entities to affirm same-sex marriage or other sexual conduct against
their beliefs.

. . . The Government Nondiscrimination Act is focused on preventing government
discrimination. Our government should never discriminate against,
punish, or penalize people based on their sincerely held belief that
marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Like the First Amendment
Defense Act at the federal level, states need to pass legislation now
to protect individuals and entities from state discrimination on the
basis of their beliefs in natural marriage.

This act appears to be so deliberately broad that it could potentially prevent government entities from protecting married gay couples and lgbts (including families) in general from discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations. It also sounds like this act would prevent government entities from fairly keeping tax dollars away from entities which would discriminate against lgbts, such as Catholic adoption agencies.

And in light of the recent controversy involving a Utah judge who removed an infant from the home of its foster parents simply because the couple was lesbian, what potential effect would FRC's Government Nondiscrimination Act have in possible future situations involving officials who may cite their religious beliefs to keep gays from adopting children?

In a nutshell, the Government Nondiscrimination Act seems to be carrying "freedom of religion" a bit too far. You certainly should have freedom to worship. But no one should have the freedom to discriminate while exploiting their religion or "conscience" as an excuse to do so.

Recently, a judge in Utah ordered that a foster child be removed from a home with two lesbian parents and placed with a heterosexual couple on the grounds that "kids in homosexual homes don’t do as well as they do in heterosexual homes."

Predictably, Bryan Fischer came rushing to that judge's defense on his radio program today, declaring that "no culture would ever want to adopt policies that are harmful, dangerous and risky to children."
"That means we should never countenance policies that place children in same-sex households, whether it's foster care or whether it is adoption," he said.

Fischer also came out against single-parent adoptions as well, before citing Mark Regnerus' repeatedly debunked study to claim that children raised by lesbians are 10 times more likely to be sexually abused.

"The risk of sexual abuse, unwanted sexual touching, is 10 times higher in a lesbian household than in a heterosexual household," he said. "So if we care about the sexual purity, the sexual integrity of our children, which I do, then the last place we are going to want to put a child is in a lesbian household."
"So good for this judge," he concluded. "I am 100 percent standing behind him."

The irony of Bryan Fischer citing a repeatedly discredited study is that at the same time day, his organization - the American Family Association and various other anti-gay and conservative groups made a failed attempt to initiate a twitter campaign against the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Associated Press.

These groups are angry at the Associated Press for publishing an article which identified the Liberty Counsel as an SPLC-designated anti-gay hate group. And they are still angry that SPLC declared the American Family Association and various other anti-gay groups, including the Family Research Council and the Liberty Counsel, as "hate groups" for their attempts to demonize the lgbt community via lies and distortions.

Utah judge removes lesbian couple’s foster child, says she’ll be better off with heterosexuals - NASTY on so many levels. 1. The couple had the child since August and everyone, including the birth mother, approves of the adoption. Except for, that is, the judge. 2. The judge claimed that numerous studies backs up his decision but he has yet to name one. I bet a steak dinner he will pull out the discredited Regnerus study. 3. An awful precedent BECAUSE the judge made a personal choice to pull a child out of a home it was already in because of the sexual orientation of the foster parents. We can only hope this doesn't repeat itself. I have been watching in particular what anti-gay groups have had to say about this. As far as I see, nothing yet. But I double dare them to say any words of support for the judge so I can put it on blast.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Editor's note - I'm deliberately keeping this as the top post so more folks can read it. That's how important I feel that it is. It would seem that after Houston, the anti-gay right has turned on a new target in demonizing the transgender community - transgender children.

With just 14 words, the American Family Association epitomizes how the anti-gay right creates fear about the transgender community.

I received the following as an email:

The Office for Civil Rights in
President Barack Obama's Department of Education (DOE) has determined
that a Chicago area high school must leave the choice to openly use the
girls' locker room up to a 15 year-old student who has male genitalia,
but self-identifies as a girl. Full story here.

Under
Title IX, the law prohibiting sex-based discrimination, the DOE civil
rights division has threatened to cut funding to Township High School
District 211 if it doesn't allow the boy to use the girls' locker room. Here
is a statement from a spokesperson at the DOE: "Unfortunately, Township
High School District 211 is not following the law because the district
continues to deny a female student the right to use the girls' locker
room." What they aren't mentioning is that the "female" student they are
referencing is actually a boy or "transgender" in their terms.

Isn't
this twisted? The federal government is micromanaging local school
district policies in Chicago to allow this boy to dress with girls. This is a prime example of Washington bureaucrats imposing their liberal policies on small town schools.

The
entire transgender idea is focused on sexual anarchy. Natural man and
woman biology is ignored and people are told they can be whatever gender
they "desire" on any particular day.

It is time
Obama's liberal minions at the DOE get the gist that they ought to
follow common sense instead of put our children at risk.

TAKE ACTION

Contact your Congressman and Senators.
Urge them to pass a resolution that Title IX should be interpreted to
recognize that transgendered students may be required to accept
accommodations that respect the rights of non-transgendered students.

The AFA version of this story is nothing but a thin tissue of lies. I covered the story of this transgender girl in an earlier post.In the above email, AFA links to right-wing news source (The Daily Signal), but according to a more credible source, U.S. News and World Reports, there are a few important facts that AFA omitted:

The transgender student has not been identified and wants to remain
anonymous, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois,
which helped the girl's parents file a complaint more than two years
ago. She has been living as a girl since middle school, has changed her
legal name, obtained a passport as a female, received a diagnosis of
gender dysphoria and is taking female hormones, according to the
Department of Education's summary of its investigation. . . . The school
district has allowed the student to use girls' restrooms and
participate in girls' athletics. She is identified as a female in the
district's computer system.

This is a child with a medical issue. It has nothing to do with sexual anarchy. However anyone reading AFA's trash wouldn't know it, particularly because of 14 words:

. . .people are told they can be whatever gender
they "desire" on any particular day.

Why are those 14 words so important? Because with those words, anti-gay groups trivialize real problems that the transgender community have to deal with and simultaneously conjure up false images of men and boys flippantly declaring they are women just to get close to women and girls in vulnerable settings. And the sad thing is unfortunately how easy it is to repeat those 14 words to scare people rather than to encourage education about the reality of being transgender
in America.

Just like people don't wake up and flippantly decide to be
gay, lesbian, or bisexual, no one realizes that they are transgender on a
whim or to run a con.

It's the same mess Mike Huckabee conjured up earlier this year when he made a tacky joke about "pretending" to be transgender so he could shower with the girls in gym class.

Huckabee's image is the one the anti-gay right wants burned in people minds when debates about transgender issues come up. But that's NOT the real situation.

The actual situation lies in that paragraph from U.S. News and World Reports article, i.e. a transgender child simply wanting to be comfortable as her natural self because she is the reality which millions of transgender men and women face on a daily basis. Even the child in the picture above used by the AFA is more likely to be transgender than to be targeted by supposed "perverts pretending to be transgender."

Senator Marco Rubio once whined that " if you do not support same-sex marriage you are labeled a homophobe and a hater." I wonder if he would play the victim if folks reminded him of the past words of his new hire; his director of faith outreach for his presidential campaign, Eric Teetsel:

"In Obergefell, the highest court in the land has done more
than merely allow for citizens to do wrong; it has bestowed its
imprimatur to homosexuality as both an identity and a way of life," (Eric)
Teetsel blogged in
First Things. "A significant cultural impediment has been removed, and
so sin will spread. This is regrettable because sin, of course, leads to
suffering. As our LGBT neighbors continue to experience the ravages of
their sin, will anyone be there to explain to them its cause?" Teetsel added: "This is the job of a Christian. Like Christ, we are
to meet others in the midst of their pain in order to point them toward
the better way on the narrow road."

According to the Huffington Post, who broke the news, comments from Rubio's campaign spokesman have yet to be returned.

Why we lost in Houston and why we may lose again - My post from this morning about the loss in Houston and the future of the lgbt community. Perhaps we would stop losing these things if we not only confront the elephant in the room, but also take it down. What is that elephant? Read on.

I've read so many opinions about the lgbt community's devastating loss in Houston and frankly I am sick of the analytical bullshit which skips over the elephant in the room.

You know why we lost in Houston? The same reason why we been put on the defensive about our lives these many years. We fail to take the opposition seriously and take steps to contain them.

The lgbt community faces a huge plethora of interconnected and sometimes non-connected organizations whose sole purpose is to either deny us equality or make our lives hell. It sounds like something out of a James Bond movie and I wish it were a fictional flight of fancy. But it's real. From the Family Research Council to the American Family Association to the Alliance Defending Freedom to the Liberty Counsel and to the World Congress of Families, we are talking about a veritable machine of homophobia which constantly churns out propaganda.

This madness about transgender women being predators and men invading women's restrooms is just the latest in a long line of horror stories and lies which began before I was even born.

We lost in Houston and we lose in other places because we have yet to confront this machine. If anything, we underestimate it. We laugh at the verbal insanity of people like Pat Robertson and Linda Harvey while ignoring the fact that people like James Dobson and Tony Perkins not only have connections with the United States Congress but also state government officials and various statewide so-called pro-family groups. These organizations have been cooperating with legislators and writing laws right under our noses, such as the now defunct DOMA law. And while we twiddle our thumbs or talk about the latest non-controversy involving folks I don't even know, they are making inroads and alliances with black pastors paved with dollars.

So what's to do? Start taking these people seriously. We should be demanding that our networks, our publications and our leaders not wait until referendum votes like the one in Houston come up to call these people out. Pre-emptive strikes never hurt. Lgbts have been explaining our right to equality since day one. I think it's necessary that these groups start explaining why they feel we have no right to equality and above all, the tactics they have undertaken to deny us said equality.

And individually, we need to educate ourselves on who these groups are, how they lie, and above all, do not trivialize their lies.

Enough with the kumbayah stuff. The pursuit of lgbt equality is a war. It always has been and it will always be.

Perhaps we need to start thinking more like live warriors and less like dead peacemakers.

For your edification, here is a list of 17 lies spread about lgbts. Recognize any?

1. Homosexuality is a lifestyle more harmful than cigarette smoking.

2. Gay men have a short life span.

3. The gay and lesbian community have a high rate of domestic violence.

Friday, November 06, 2015

It never ceases to amaze me how many times the anti-gay group the Family Research Council will just blatantly lie about gay men.

What am I saying?

It shouldn't amaze me because the organization gets away with it often. This particular time has to do with an American Psychological Association series of articles which makes the claim that "rates of military sexual trauma among men who served in the military may be as much as 15 times higher than has been previously reported, largely because of barriers associated with stigma, beliefs in myths about male rape, and feelings of helplessness."

And one of those myths is spread by the Family Research Council, courtesy of its latest email:

If the Association is right, it paints a frightening picture of the
Obama Pentagon -- which is not only denying the fallout of its policies,
but far worse, denying our servicemen the treatment and help they need.
For years, the DOD has shrugged off the possibility that repealing
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) would have any impact on the ranks. Now,
four years into this brave new world, it turns out that conservatives
and the dozens of military leaders who fought the change were right. It
doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that when Congress
introduced even more sexual tension into the ranks, it put thousands of
our brave men and women into a defenseless and compromising position.

The White House has spent Barack Obama's entire presidency
sexualizing the military, beginning with the repeal of DADT -- and
continuing with the push for open transgenderism. Now, Defense officials
are racing to reassure people that they're doing everything they can to
get to the bottom of these issues -- only to inject more policies that
accelerate both. They put political correctness ahead of national
security and then seem surprised when the people who protect us are at
risk.

The Pentagon downplayed the effects
of open homosexuality when it was implemented in the military in 2011--
something it will certainly have a tough time doing now. Until that
changes, and the administration gets serious about the root problems,
every service member will be a victim of this sexually-charged
environment.

Not only does the Family Research Council not provide any proof that repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell is the reason for the increase of male-on-male sexual assaults, but according to Right Wing Watch, the reports say that the idea that "that male rape is homosexual sex and therefore, that only homosexual men get raped and only homosexual men perpetrate rape" is a myth.

But in this world of quick punditry, no respect for good old fashioned journalism, as well as the crop of right-wing, anti-gay entities masquerading as parts of the media, how long will FRC's spin be believed before the truth has time to catch up?

GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson suggested creating separate public bathrooms for transgender people in an interview with Fusion's Jorge Ramos Thursday.
When Ramos asked Carson if transgender men and women should be able to use any public bathroom they choose, Carson responded, "How about we have a transgender bathroom?"
"It is not fair for them to make everybody else uncomfortable," Carson added. "It's one of the things that I don't particularly like about the movement."

Apparently Mr. Carson seeks to totally destroy his entire legacy as an African-American hero. Sure, let's segregate the transgender community in a separate bathroom because apparently in Carson's world, segregation worked wonderfully the last time it was enacted. Damn those black folks and that liberal Supreme Court for ruining it and making white folks forever feel uncomfortable.

What gets me is that it is such a ridiculous reason why Carson proposes segregated bathrooms for the transgender community. Because supposedly they make people feel uncomfortable? Excuse me but public restrooms in general aren't exactly the most comfortable places in the world. Nothing says uncomfortable like seeing a co-worker at his most vulnerable at a urinal. And nothing says uncomfortable like attempting to sneak out of the public restroom without anyone seeing you after you've cut a major sonic fart. Or how about knowing that a people you don't even know have intestinal issues based upon how your nostril hairs feel singed after being in the bathroom while they are "conducting their business."

Now THAT is uncomfortable. Perhaps Mr. Carson would like to create laws about that?

About Me

Alvin McEwen is 46-year-old African-American gay man who resides in Columbia, SC.
McEwen's blog, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, and writings have been mentioned by Americablog.com, Goodasyou.org, People for the American Way, PageOneQ.com, The Washington Post, Raw Story, The Advocate, Media Matters for America, Crooksandliars.com, Thinkprogress.org, Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, Melissa Harris-Perry, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, The Washington Blade, and Foxnews.com.
In addition, he is also a past contributor to Pam's House Blend,Justice For All, LGBTQ Nation, and Alternet.org. He is a present contributor to the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post,
He is the 2007 recipient of the Harriet Daniels Hancock Volunteer of the Year Award and the 2010 recipient of the Order of the Pink Palmetto from the SC Pride Movement as well as the 2009 recipient of the Audre Lorde/James Baldwin Civil Rights Activist Award from SC Black Pride. In addition, he is a three-time nominee of the Ed Madden Media Advocacy Award from SC Pride.